Searching the literature (for at least the past year), I was suprised at finding only a limited number of papers dealing with Finite Element modelling of ultrasound propagation (through solid media). These include "Modelling elastic wave propagation in waveguides with the FEM", F. Moser et al., NDT&E Int., vol. 32, 1999, "FE modelling of ultrasound...", R. Hill et al., Ultrasonics, 2004 (online) and a couple of additional papers. (There are some additional works using the finite differences method (utilizing the WAVE 2000 software) in 2D models).These FE papers claim that they came up with very promising results.

I am a little confused because I want to work in this area using FE in 3D models. My questions are: a) does anyone know if there are some reasons for not employing FE to simulate ultrasound propagation (e.g. inability of FE to model such problems, more disadvantages than advantages. etc.)?b) are there more papers in the literature than I have found?c) ultrasound excitation (in contactapplication) should be regarded as a force boundary condition or prescribed displacement at the transducer/medium interface (my opinion is the former case).

An article in “Composites World Magazine” showcases Non
Destructive Testing of aero-structures

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with Laser Shearography.
Over the years Dantec Dynamics has supplied many solutions for the
aerospace industry. Referring to specific customer projects
several of these cases are examined to outline the advantages of
using Laser Shearography for automated defect detection.

The MUSE, a portable ultrasonic imaging system, was developed for in-field inspections of light-weig

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ht structures. The MUSE consists of a motor-driven manipulator, a water circulation system for the acoustic coupling and a portable ultrasonic flaw detector (USPC 3010). The MUSE provides images of internal defects (A-, B-,C- and D-scan).